Volunteers and Research – Berwick Record Office

03/04/201918/03/2019 by Northumberland Archives

Volunteers at the Berwick Record Office are encouraged to research people or events mentioned in the records they index. This enhances the lists and is an opportunity to bring together information from a number of sources that the Archivist may not have the time to collate.

Following a thread

Helen is a volunteer at the Berwick Records Office and has been involved in a number of projects – particularly those with schoolchildren. Recently, she has been looking through the Borough Surveyor’s notebook (featured in an earlier post) for references to Berwick men who served in World War I and decided to find out more about one of them – Sidney Hill.

Sidney Hill

Sidney Hill was born in Berwick in 1900. He was drafted towards the end of the war and from 1918-1919 served on HMS Kildonan – a patrol gunboat that monitored the British coast.

In 1936 he was appointed the first Housing Officer of the Berwick-Upon-Tweed Town Council. However, in 1937 he and his wife emigrated to Salisbury in, what was then known as, Rhodesia to take up a post on the Bulawayo Railway. This followed “malicious rumours” that he was involved in financial irregularities at the Council. However, The Mayor appealed for this gossip to stop, in the Berwick Advertiser on the 29 June 1937, saying neither he nor the Surveyors Department was under investigation.

Local newspapers are a useful source of information for this kind of research and the Archives has a collection of them dating back to the early 19th century. The Berwick Advertiser and Berwickshire News regularly carried reports about Berwick people who lived in other parts of the world. Helen also looked at national sources – such as the census of 1901 – to find out about Sidney’s family background.

Armenia Tabor

My own curiosity was piqued last week by reading the petition of Armenia Tabor, the widow of Thomas Tabor, a Freeman of Berwick-upon-Tweed (Draft Guild Minute Book 1738-1755 B 2/4). She asked the Guild if they would pay for her to return home to Holland because, she said, she had become “burthensome ” to the Incorporation. They agreed as letting the meadows and stints to which she was entitled as a Freeman’s widow would defray the expense of sending her home.

It is interesting that, as a Freeman’s widow, Armenia was able to bargain with the Guild to improve her lot. The Borough Archives are a rich source of information about women’s lives – though not all of them as lucky as Armenia. Guild petitions and court records, for example, illustrate what life in a Garrison town was like for ordinary women through incidental and direct references to them.

Possible baptism of Thomas Tabor, Transcripts of Berwick Holy Trinity Church Baptisms

And, it is likely there is much more to be discovered about Armenia and Thomas should someone want to look. Were they brought together by war (the War of the Spanish Succession took place around the time they might have met), did trade with the Netherlands play a part or was it something else entirely? What happened to her when she left Berwick?

Would you like to join us?

If you are interested in researching stories like this we are looking for volunteers to help us.

At 2 pm on Saturday 23rd and on Tuesday 26th March we will be holding introductory sessions for potential volunteers at the Berwick Record Office in Walkergate. Please come along if you are thinking about getting involved. We want to hear what interests you.

BERWICK ADVERTISER, 14 MARCH 1919

15/03/2019 by Northumberland Archives

GARDENS AND ALLOTMENTS

HOW TO GROW POTATOES AND ONIONS

At the annual meeting of the Berwick and District Gardens and Allotments Association held last month, Mr Carmichael, hon. treasurers, suggested it would be a good plan to have lectures on the cultivation of vegetables. The committee took up the suggestion in a practical manner, and the first of these lectures was delivered on Tuesday evening in the Long Room, Corn Exchange, by Mr J. Jackson, gardener to Lord Joicey, at Ford castle. The subject of Mr Jackson’s paper was “Potatoes and Onions and their cultivation”. There was a splendid turnout of members and those interested in gardening. The Mayor (Ald. J. Plenderleith) President of the Association was in the chair, and was supported by Councillor Elder and Mr R. Bradford, chairman and joint hon. secretary of the Association respectively.

CHATTON

Reference was made under the Lowick news of our South West Edition last week of the flight over the district of the airship N, S. 7. Since then a fatality has occurred in connection with the airship. When rising from Newcastle Town Moor on Tuesday, 4th March, Sergeant Johnstone having seized the rope the airship unexpectedly rose through a burst of sunshine having caused extra buoyancy.

The thrill of the spectators can be imagined when the saw the unfortunate man clinging to the rope till some sixty feet from the ground his strength failed and he crashed to his death, which took place a few minutes from his fall. The Air Service is full of perils, and it is to be hoped that these will be diminished by science before that much talked of aerial posts are established.

A large body of the Canadian troops has left the camp, which is now very small in its proportions. They have not only left their mark upon the landscape, but also upon the roads. It is to be hoped that the road authorities will be alive to the interests of the ratepayers, and get the Government to recoup a fair share of the enormous expenditure which will be required to restore the highways to their normal condition.

HOLY ISLAND

The engagement was announced on Wednesday of Mr Edward Hudson, of Queen Anne’s-gate and Lindisfarne Castle, Northumberland, and Mme. Guilmina Suggia, the famous cellist, who is of Portuguese nationality.

Mr Hudson, who is the chairman and managing director of “Country Life,” is well-known in the north as the owner of the Castle at Holy Island, which dates back as far as 1500. Mr Hudson has furnished the Castle in a most tasteful manner, which is quite in keeping with its romantic history.

LOCAL NEWS

A Glasgow Herald correspondent, in an article on the Old Border Bridge at Berwick mentions, that Cromwell and his army crossed the Tweed by the bridge when in 1650 they marched to Scotland in order to persuade or compel the nation to the rule of the Commonwealth.

The Restoration of the Monarchy brought benefit to Berwick, for Charles II allowed the corporation an annuity of £100 from the Customs of their town or from those of Newcastle for upkeep of the Old Bridge. In 1700 William III ordered the sum to be paid from the Exchequer, and this arrangement is still maintained for the repair of the now ancient structure.

SPITTAL NOTES

Private Andrew Wood, K.O.S.B., is one of Spittal’s war veterans who has been recently demobilised. This gallant Tommy joined up at a period of life when he was far beyond military age, but the irresistible spirit was there, and forced him to action. Since joining up he has passed through the hottest of the fighting on the Western front; and without hesitation we can affirm that the fault would not be his if many a “Jerry” did not pay the full penalty of his misdeeds at the muzzle end of Andrew’s rifle. He has all the pluck and keenness of the true British fighter. We regret that since his home-coming he has been confined to bed, and sincerely trust that his recovery will only be a matter of days, and that renewed health and strength will be his, and a bright and lengthy future in which to enjoy life.

Sergeant George Brigham, Dental Section, R.A.M.C., is now demobilised after having been with the forces since hostilities commenced. On joining up he took up duties as a dispatch rider, admittedly a dangerous occupation, yet George stuck it, placing many hair-breadth escapes to his credit, until finally the strain so told upon an otherwise robust constitution that his removal from the work became a necessity, and he was placed at his own profession in the dental section of the R.A.M.C., where he held the rank of senior sergeant, and had charge of one of the departments. Prior to enlistment he was an assistant with Mr R.R. Riddell, Surgeon Dentist, Quay Walls. We wish him good health and luck in the future.

Miscellaneous Records (Twixt Thistle and Rose)

03/04/201911/03/2019 by Northumberland Archives

Old paper catalogues often have miscellaneous sections. This is sometimes because the catalogue is a work in progress – the records have a proper place in the collection but it hasn’t been located yet. Or it might be the place where records are put that don’t quite fit the collection. Unfortunately, a miscellaneous category tends to hide rather than reveal what’s put there – whereas a meaningful title or class description facilitates discovery.

Plan of the water supply to Hide Hill 1835
B10/41 Miscellaneous Guild letters and papers

Waifs and strays

The new catalogue of the archives of the Borough of Berwick-upon-Tweed will not have miscellaneous sections – records will relate to the body that created them. This will make them more accessible and put them in the correct context.

Miscellaneous unreferenced record – Plan of proposed North Bells Fishing Shiel, 1895

First task

I have begun to check some of the boxes of miscellaneous records to estimate the scale of the job ahead. In the main, the miscellaneous records relate to the class they have been placed with but, at some point, bundles have split and become mixed up or pages have been detached from their volumes. In all cases the records are unlisted individually – so none of the documents depicted here, for example, can currently be easily found by using the handlist. A researcher would have to rely on the knowledge of the archivist or browse all miscellaneous records with a relevant date.

Corporation Mathematical School inventory 1804 (C15/1-98 Miscellaneous Papers) showing items handed over by Mr Rae to Mr Todd who had taken over as master of the Mathematical School. The Corporation Academy was completed in 1800 bringing into one place the separate schoolmasters that had taught at different rooms in the town. Only Freemen’s children were admitted. Initially each master reported directly to the Guild but in 1844 a Rector was appointed by the Town Council following research into how Edinburgh and Glasgow schools had been reformed (John Scott History of Berwick, 1888 p.407; Janet D. Cowe The Development of Education in Berwick -upon-Tweed to 1902, 2018 pp 83-95).

Unintentional curators

However, some bundles contain a medley of documents that don’t follow a particular time sequence but contain the sort of records that might be selected when writing a book or article. For example, references to a theatre in Hide Hill, a case of infanticide or a list of books at the Mathematical School. It is not that uncommon to find ad-hoc curation in collections given to Archives – someone will have already found them useful but forgot to note where they came from or did not understand the need to return them to their original place.

Part of a bundle of records relating to the investigation of a charge of infanticide against Margaret Dryden (C15/1-98 Miscellaneous Papers)

Authentication

Detaching a record from it’s original place in the archive not only makes it harder to find but can break the custodial chain that gives a record authenticity and a traceable provenance. It is the reason why archives are listed hierarchically and in such great detail. If they were not, it wouldn’t be too hard to slip in a fake deed or receipt or remove unique and valuable evidence.

How to prepare a prisoner for transportation by hulk to a penal colony 1814 (C15/1-98 Miscellaneous papers)

Licencing Hide Hill Theatre 1794 (C15/1-98 Miscellaneous papers )

John Robinson…man of mystery (C15/1-98 Miscellaneous papers)

A man of mystery, a clothing account and how to maintain a fire engine

The reluctant release of John Robinson, a man with a mysterious past as a ship-hopping vagrant, a list of green clothing purchased and instructions on how to maintain a fire engine are a few examples of miscellaneous items in the current handlist that must be correctly relocated.

Account for clothing (C15/1-98 Miscellaneous papers)

When the catalogue is complete it should be much easier to to find them and understand how they fit into the history of Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Fire Engine Instructions ,1814 (C15/1-98 Miscellaneous Papers)

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